We are looking for your ideas to strenghten democracy all over Europe and beyond! The page is divided into general project criteria, specific proposal information, and our expectations from you. We are open to discuss how we can best provide support: organisational support and/or financial assistance. We will also plan a call (or multiple if needed) to answer specific questions you might have.

Volt There’s mission

The main goal of the foundation is to strengthen democracy through civic participation. Initiatives can be of a broad range of subjects, and must include at least one – preferably all three – of these three elements: inform, engage, and impact.

1. Inform: an initiative can have the main purpose to inform citizens about a specific topic. Who receives the information and the quality of the information are crucial points to reflect upon when developing the initiative. We always want to be evidence based and transparent when informing citizens.
2. Engage: an initiative can also inspire engagement. We want to create an opportunity for open dialogue and collaboration between citizens. The threshold of an initiative affects whether citizens are able to participate in the initiative, and hence this should be considered when formalising the initiative.
3. Impact: this refers to what issue the initiative tries to tackle, who, and how does it affect the community/society? It is important to establish what the added value of the initiative is. In other words, what is the difference before and after the initiative. We strive to be community and future oriented.

So what is possible within a project?

In short: a lot! We want to keep it as open as possible, so you can use your imagination and come up with some creative ideas that work in your context. We aim to help you and your team to realise your project. The project of course must share our Volt There mission of strenghtening democracy. Moreover, we aim to encourage cross border collaboration. Hence, a plus when your project is replicable to another team or is a collaboration between different teams. In this way, we hope to explore and improve best practices to be used elsewhere in Europe and beyond.

Note: Check your local regulations to see what is possible. For example, unfortunately, a project cannot take place in Germany (due to German government regulations).

Who will execute the project?

You! Volt There can supply the funding and of course can advise, but we rely on you and other members of your team to execute the project. We will have a start-up call to go through your project, and we will plan update-calls if necessary (depending on the scope of your project).

Funding will go directly to the people executing the project, unless explicitely otherwise needed.

Deadline applications

There is no deadline for applications. However, after you have applied, we expect you to be able to start working on your initiative within approximately three months. So apply when you are ready. We would like to receive an update with more details depending on the project within two months. You can always check with us (e.g. six months prior) whether a project would be considered in theory before further organising and finalising a proposal.

We do this so that we can put the available budget to the best possible use. With this setup, when a situation changes and an initiative cannot be organised, another initiative can use the budget within the same year.

Project requirements

• The event must take place in the calendar year.
• The subject of the event must fit in the goals and values of Volt There.
• The event cannot take place in The Netherlands (these specific subsidies are solely for use outside of NL) as well as Germany (because of national regulations).
• We expect regular updates, especially when changes are made compared to the accepted proposal.

How to send in a proposal

To make proposals easily comparable for us and not too complicated to fill in for you, we use the following system: 

1. Copy and fill in this budget format. This provides us with a cost estimate. Instructions in the file.
2. Use this form to fill in basic details of your initiative and upload the budget.

Selection process

The Volt There team will do a legal check on all submissions: we need to check if it really falls within the goals of Volt There and complies with the subsidy rules. If this is all good, we will decide whether to support the project and with how much funding. See more on costs below.

We aim to give you a decision within two weeks after submitting the proposal. The contact person will receive the final decision per email.

If accepted

Go ahead and organise your project! Give us updates along the way. Change of plans can happen, but let us know in advance so we can approve it.

Costs and reimbursement

Find more information on costs and reimbursements here. Make sure that spending is also aligned with our values.

Sharing your successes and lessons learned

After you have completed the project, please do the following:

• Share your event within your network!
• Give us a short summary, outcome, impact and some details of the event via this template. We ask you to do this firstly to report about the successes of the projects, so others can learn from it. Secondly, we in turn also need to report to the Dutch government how the funds have been used.

NB. The end report must be received at the latest at the end of January next calendar year.

Contact information

For questions, or other steps in the process (such as sending in report) you can reach us at volt.there@voltnederland.org.s